


The Christmas Arrangement

by newyorkcity_dreaming



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 20:07:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8937391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newyorkcity_dreaming/pseuds/newyorkcity_dreaming
Summary: Laurel has been lying to her mother about having a boyfriend so when her mother decides to visit for Christmas, somehow she needs to find one, she just didn't think it would have to be him!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FreyReh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreyReh/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own the DC Legends of Tomorrow series, or any of the characters that belong to DC, Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and the rest of incredible writers. I also do not own rights to any songs that might be listed within the story and I also do not make any profit from this story.

“I can’t keep bailing you out, Mick,” Laurel Lance said as she walked down the steps outside the police station. “The first time was a favor for Sara, but you can’t keep calling me like this.”

“Then why’d you give me your card?” Mick Rory asked, following the blonde district attorney down the steps.

“I gave it to you in case of an emergency,” Laurel said, spinning around to face him. “I didn’t give it to you so that you could call me after yet another bar fight. And honestly, Mick, getting locked up at my father’s precinct? What were you thinking? No, scratch that, you weren’t thinking, you never are!”

“I didn’t mean it this time, Laurel.”

“So what? You meant it all the other times?” she threw at him angrily.

“No.”

Laurel rubbed her hand against her forehead and sighed. She couldn’t believe that this had happened again. It was the fifth time in as many weeks, and she was getting sick of coming out in the middle of the night to bail him out.

“Just go home, Mick.” Laurel said before turning and heading to her car. She got in and drove off, shaking her head.

~

“I’m here,” Laurel called out, and she made her way into the house her father and step-mother owned, ready for their weekly dinner. Taking off her jacket, she walked through to the lounge and threw the garment over the back of the couch and placed her bag down with it. She followed the noise through to the kitchen and was engulfed in a hug from her sister and step-sister.

“You’re here!” Felicity exclaimed.

“I am! Just like every week. What’s gotten into the the two of you?” Laurel asked as Donna came over and handed her a glass of wine.

“We just wanted to hug you before, well, before you possibly kill yourself with the news dad has for you,” Sara admitted, accepting her own glass from Donna.

“What news?” Laurel asked with a worried look on her face.

“Just wait for your dad to tell you,” Felicity said.

“Donna?” Laurel questioned.

“You may want to sit down for this sweetie,” the blonde woman said, taking a breath as Laurel sat down at the counter. “Your mother called today. She is coming to town for Christmas with her new guy, and she wants us all to spend Christmas together, and that includes your boyfriend.”

“WHAT? DAAAD!!!”

Laurel got off the chair, downed the wine, and made her way through the house and downstairs to what Quentin had dubbed  _ The Man Cave _ . She found him in the middle of watching some sports thing with Oliver and Leonard, and she turned the TV off and stood in front of them.

“We should go,” Oliver said to Leonard, who nodded, and they both got up and left the room quickly.

“Chickens!” Laurel called after them.

“Come sit,” Quentin said, patting the seat next to him before asking how Laurel’s day had been.

Laurel sat down with a huff. “How was my day? Well, it was going fine until Donna told me Mom is coming for Christmas. How did this happen? Why does she even want to come?”

“I guess she knows that you and your sister won’t go to Gotham for Christmas, so she figures that if she comes here, she will be able to see you.”

“It’s not about not wanting to go to Gotham; it’s more about not wanting to miss spending Christmas with you and Donna and Felicity,” Laurel said.

“Selfishly, I’m glad about that, but it does mean we have to let your mother come here and do Christmas with us.”

“And with your boyfriend,” Sara said walking into the room, only to have Laurel throw a pillow at her. “Hey, I’m just here to tell you dinner is ready!”

“Just because you and Len and Liss and Ollie are all happy doesn’t mean I need a guy,” Laurel said, getting off the couch and then helping her father up.

“We all know that, but Mom coming to town means we do need to find you a boyfriend for the time she’s here,” Sara said as they walked up the stairs and into the dining room.

“Oh, this is so like one of those cheesy Christmas movies mom watches,” Felicity said as they all sat down at the table.

“Cheesy?” Donna asked.

“It’s okay, Donna, we all know Felicity watches them, too, at least one a night, currently,” Oliver said.

“Traitor,” Felicity mumbled at him, causing everyone to laugh.

“So what are you going to do about finding a fill in guy?” Leonard asked Laurel.

“I have no idea. I mean how does one even do that?”

“What about Tommy?” Felicity asked.

“Tommy and Caitlin are going overseas this Christmas for foundation work, so he won’t be around, and he wouldn’t work anyway because Mom knows him. Plus there is the added problem that Mom thinks my boyfriend’s name is Michael after Sara just blurted out a name when we were there a month ago,” Laurel said, shooting her sister a look across the table.

“I’m sorry, okay? I was put on the spot,” Sara said with a pout.

“So we need to find someone Dinah doesn’t know and get them to pretend their name is Michael for, what, two or three weeks? And we only have a week to train them up so they know us all,” Donna said.

“I hate to say it but what about--” Leonard started.

“No, absolutely not,” Laurel said, cutting him off.

“Mick is not that bad, Laurel, and Mick is a form of Michael, so it wouldn’t be a stretch,” Leonard said.

“Mick? As in Mick Rory?” Quentin asked. “The guy who is in my precinct every other week?”

“Oh yes, Mick is a great idea!” Sara exclaimed.

“Are you insane, Sara? I was literally there last night bailing him out after another bar fight,” Laurel said.

“Laurel, I swear Mick is a good guy. He’s just been bored because Len and I got together, and that’s why he goes out drinking. I swear, for the most part he is probably just lonely. Who knows, maybe you could be good for each other,” Sara said.

“Sara might have a point,” Felicity said.

Oliver was about to add in his two cents, but the look Laurel gave him across the table caused him to refrain from speaking at all.

“I’m a highly respected district attorney. I can’t be seen dating some low-life criminal!” Laurel exclaimed.

“I’m not sure that you have an option, sweetie,” Quentin said, causing Laurel to stare at him in shock. “I mean it’s Mick or you tell your mother the truth.”

“Can we just talk about something else?” Laurel asked, wanting nothing more than to change the subject. “Liss, I’m sure you have something to tell us all about your week.”

“I do, actually, but I’m not sure it’s going to help your situation,” Felicity said.

“Let me be the judge of that,” Laurel told her.

She watched as her step-sister turned to look at Oliver and then back at the table, and Laurel just knew what was coming.

“Oliver and I are engaged!” Felicity exclaimed, smiling brightly.

As cheer erupted around the table, Laurel faked a smiled for the happy couple, knowing Felicity’s words had been right. This announcement didn’t help her situation, not one single bit.

~

The place was dark, dimly lit with overhead lights. Laurel could see unused pool tables gathering dust  toward the back or the premises. There were booths around the sides and scattered tables around the central bar. The smell of alcohol was musty and overpowering, even for a place like this, and the floors felt sticky against the soles of her heels as she walked toward the bar and took a seat.

“Well, well, Laurel Lance, to what do I owe this pleasure? Mick said, cleaning out some glasses.

“I think that the real question here is, if you own this place, why do you spend every other night getting kicked out of other bars?” Laurel asked.

“It’s not that often,” Mick said as he turned and hung up some wine glasses.

“I have a cell phone record that proves you wrong.”

“And like I said the other night, you’re the one who gave me your card,” Mick said.

Laurel looked around the bar and sighed. If Mick actually cared enough to put work into the place, it could have been amazing. “I just don’t know why you don’t do something to make it better.”

“Is there a reason you’re actually here, or did you just come to insult my bar?” Mick asked.

“I do have a reason. I have a proposal for you, almost a business offer, if you will,” she started. “My Mom is coming to town for Christmas, and she is bringing this new guy, and, well, I’m the only single one left, except she thinks I have a boyfriend. It’s this whole big thing; she kept trying to set me up with guys in Gotham, so I lied, and now she is expecting to come here and meet this guy that doesn’t exist,” Laurel rambled.

Mick poured her a glass of wine and placed it in front of her. “I get it now. I’d want to drink, too.”

“No, I didn’t come to drink. I mean, I will, but I came to ask...” Laurel sipped the wine for courage before continuing. “I was wondering if you would pretend to be my boyfriend while she is here.”

The shock on Mick’s face was evident before he started laughing almost uncontrollably. Laurel rolled her eyes and let out a huff before sipping her wine again.

“Oh, you’re serious?” Mick asked when he saw her face.

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“Yeah. I mean, can’t you find a lawyer or something, someone more your speed?”

“Believe me, if there was anyone else I could ask, I would,” Laurel said.

“I feel so needed,” Mick said sarcastically.

“I’m sorry. Look, it makes it easier that you’re already friends with Sara and Len. They’ll be at all the family stuff, so you wouldn’t be alone, and we have a week until my mother gets here to get to know each other to sell it to her. After she leaves I’ll give it a couple of weeks, and I’ll just say we broke up,” Laurel explained.

“What exactly would this entail?”

“First, no more getting kicked out of bars and ending up in the precinct for me to bail you out. Second, you need to learn everything you can in the next week about my family and me, which brings me to my third thing: you need to move in with me for the next month,” Laurel told him.

“Wait, what? I have to live with you?”

“I don’t like this either, but if we want to sell this, it has to look real.”

“And what exactly do I get out of this?” Mick asked.

“You get to spend Christmas with an actual family instead of at this bar by yourself, and you get $5000 to go toward fixing this place up,” Laurel answered.

“You’re going to pay me to pretend to date you?”

“I guess you could see it that way, but to me this is a business deal, nothing more.”

Mick wiped his hands on a cloth and then held one out to Laurel for her to shake. “You have a deal.”

~

“What do you mean you need to stay here?” Laurel said, pacing her living room.

“The hotel made a mistake and is totally booked, as is everything else. Sara and Leonard don’t really have the room for us to stay there, and, well, it would be awkward for Peter and I to stay with your father and Donna,” Dinah said on the other end of the phone.

“Mom, I’m just not prepared to have guests.”

“You have a guest room, do you not?”

“Yes, I do,” Laurel answered.

“And it’s not being used, am I correct?”

“No, it’s not being used,” Laurel said through gritted teeth, knowing full well that was a lie.

“Perfect! Well, Peter and I will see you in two days,” Dinah said before hanging up the phone.

Laurel let out a scream as she threw her phone across the room. When did her life become so stressful?She was still pacing and ranting when Mick walked through the door 20 minutes later.

“What’s up with you?” he asked as he set a six pack of beer on the kitchen counter.

“My mother!” Laurel exclaimed, marching across and taking one of the beers.

“Umm, that’s mine,” Mick said as Laurel popped the top and took a drink. “Never mind then.”

“Oh, you should have one, too, because wait for it, my mother and Peter are coming to stay with us,” Laurel said.

Mick pulled a beer out for himself and downed half of it.

“Why?” he finally asked.

“Hotel mix up or something,” Laurel said. “But that means we have to move you into my room and I have to set up the guest room again. We have to make it look like you’ve been living here for at least a year. You are going to need to go and get stuff from your apartment: DVDs, more clothes, books--”

“Do I look like a books guy?” Mick said, interrupting her.

“No, but I mean you just need to get stuff that makes it look like you belong here, can you do that?”

Mick sighed. “I’ll go get stuff tomorrow. Your mother won’t have any idea that this is all a setup. Don’t worry, Laurel.”

~

Her mother and Peter had been in her apartment for three hours, and Laurel was already feeling the need for her own space back. It didn’t help that Mick was still at work, because it just meant her mother had asked Laurel a lot of questions about him. Sure, she knew the answers, but she would have preferred him to be there to answer them himself.

The past week, they had spent all their non-working time together. Mick had met her family, and everyone was on board with the fake relationship. Donna had even insisted that they all go out and take photos so Laurel could put them up in the apartment to look more realistic. Her stepmother was far more sneaky than Laurel had ever realized, even putting up a photo of her and Mick with Sara, Leonard, Felicity and Oliver at their house.

“Mom, I have to go into the office for a while, so why don’t you and Peter make yourselves at home, and when I get back we can head out to dinner,” Laurel suggested, needing a reason to get out of the apartment.

“I could do with a nap,” Dinah said.

“Perfect, and Peter, please watch TV, make a coffee, whatever. I’ll be back soon,” Laurel said as she picked up her purse and left.

~

“I wondered how long it would take you to cave and leave the apartment,” Mick said as Laurel walked into his office and collapsed onto the couch.

“She is just so draining!” Laurel exclaimed.

“Where does she think you are right now?” 

“The office. She decided to have a nap, and I wasn’t going to sit around with just Peter, so here I am!”

“Here you are.”

“What are you doing over there?” Laurel asked as Mick typed something on his computer.

“Spreadsheets, basically the bane of my existence,” he said.

“You do spreadsheets?” Laurel asked.

“For the expenses and accounts of the bar. I know people think I’m not smart enough or whatever to do it, but I’m not dumb, and I know even you thought it at some point.”

“I’m more surprised you don’t have someone else doing them for you, like an accountant or something,” Laurel said. She couldn’t argue with his comment about thinking he was dumb; the first time she met him, she was bailing him out, like so many times after that, but in the last week she had noticed a change in him. Maybe Sara and Leonard were right. Maybe Mick was just lonely.

“Why pay someone to do something I can do myself?” Mick asked.

Laurel got off the couch and moved over to where he was, looking over his shoulder. He was actually doing a really good job of keeping his books up-to-date. As he filled in more cells and tallied things up, Laurel smiled to herself and leaned against his desk, picking up paperwork that needed filing.

“Do these go in there?” she asked, pointing at the cabinet in the corner of the room, and Mick nodded at her.

She moved across the room and started to file the paperwork for him, and not for the first time that week did she think that maybe Mick Rory wasn’t so bad after all.

~

"You’re right, your mother is draining,” Mick said as he closed the door to the bedroom later that evening.

“Right,” Laurel agreed, toeing off her heels and placing them in the closet.

“I was like, ‘enough with the questions,’” Mick said as he pulled off his shoes and placed them next to hers.

Laurel let out a laugh and smiled at him before pulling her pyjamas out and heading to the adjoining bathroom to change.

When she opened the door again, Mick was standing in the room in only his boxers and Laurel had to remind herself to breathe.

“I’m done in the bathroom,” she said.

“Thanks,” he said. “Do you have pillow and blanket I can put on the floor?”

“We’re both grown ups; we can just share the bed,” Laurel said.

“Right,” Mick said gruffly before heading into the bathroom and closing the door.

Laurel turned off the main light and flicked on the lamps on the side tables before climbing into bed. There was something about the way Mick had been with her mother that made her smile. While Dinah spoke about herself, Mick looked as if he couldn’t have cared less, and yet Dinah thought he was the world’s best listener.

The bathroom door opened and Mick walked out and got into bed next to Laurel, flicking the lamp off. He lay on his stomach and looked up at her as she finished the chapter of the book she was reading. When she put the book down, Laurel also flicked off the lamp and slipped further down under the covers and smiled at Mick.

“One day down, too many to go,” she said with a faint laugh in her voice.

“We’ll be fine,” he told her before rolling over.

Laurel lay there, awake long after Mick had fallen asleep, and hoped he was right, because they might have pulled off the first day fine, but so many things could go wrong between now and when her mother left.

~

Shopping with her mother had been painful, to say the least, and Laurel honestly had no idea where Peter went or what he did when he wasn’t with them. Laurel had taken the day off to spend the day with her mother and Sara. They were now all at Quentin and Donna’s for the weekly dinner, and Laurel couldn’t help but be thankful for her stepmother’s unconditional love and support, something that had only become more evident throughout the whole lie they were currently all living.

“How’s it going?” Donna asked as Laurel filled wine glasses.

“It’s actually not even that bad. I didn’t realize just how easy Mick would be to get along with; it’s been mostly like spending time with a friend,” Laurel said with a smile.

“That’s how I felt about your father,” Donna said giving Laurel a wink before heading into the other room with the tray of glasses.

Laurel shook her head and pulled a beer out of the fridge for Mick, knowing he’d prefer that over the wine. She made her way into the other room and sat down on the arm of the sofa he was sitting on, passing him the beer. He was busy in conversation with Oliver but turned to smile at Laurel as she gave him the bottle, and his free hand then found its way to rest on her knee.

“Oh, Laurel, look!” Felicity exclaimed, pointing at the mistletoe hanging over her and Mick.

Laurel looked up and saw it, shaking her head before looking at Mick. “You don’t want to watch us kiss,” she said.

“It’s a Christmas tradition,” Felicity answered.

Shaking her head again, Laurel looked back at Mick and then leaned down and kissed him softly, a little more than a peck, but only enough to leave the room wanting more. As Laurel pulled back, though, Mick pulled her off the arm of the chair and onto his lap, pulling her back into a kiss. She wrapped her arm around his neck and returned the kiss as the room cheered.

When they broke apart, Laurel bit her lip and rested her forehead against Mick’s, smiling at him.

“Way to sell that,” she whispered before moving to kiss his cheek, then standing up as Mick went back to his conversation with Oliver.

~

A week and a half had gone by since her mother arrived, and everything, as far as Laurel was concerned, had been running smoothly. She and Mick had been getting along well, so well that Laurel was starting to wonder how she would ever go back to sleeping alone once this was all over.

It was the Wednesday before Christmas when Laurel woke up to arguing. She noticed Mick’s side of the bed empty and climbed out of bed. She headed out of the room toward the sound of the voices, wrapping her robe around her as she went.

“What is going on here?” Laurel asked loudly, causing her mother and Mick to turn and look at her.

“Your mother has had Peter following me,” Mick said.

“YOU WHAT?” Laurel shouted, turning to look at her mother in disbelief.

“It was a good thing that I did! Peter heard him leave early this morning and he went and spent a few hours at a bar! Really Laurel, is this the type of man you want in your life?” Dinah said.

Laurel all but rolled her eyes at her mother. “First, how dare you have Mick followed! Second, Mick owns the bar, and third, I want you gone. I’m happy to spend Christmas with you, but I want you out of my apartment today.”

“He isn’t good enough for you, Laurel. You deserve someone who will give you the world,” Dinah said.

“You think I don’t know that!” Mick exclaimed. “I know she’s too good for me, and I know that I can’t give her the world, whatever you think that should be, Dinah, but I’m here and I’m trying and I would give her the entire universe if I could!”

Laurel couldn’t help the tears that formed in her eyes at Mick’s words. Never had she ever had anyone stand up for her like that.

“I...I...” Dinah started.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Mick said. “I have to go out, but when I get back I want you to have apologised to your daughter, and I want you out of our apartment.”

Laurel watched as Mick left the apartment, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself as she saw Peter bring his and her mother’s bags from the guest room.

“Laurel, I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything, Mom, just go.”

“I’m sorry, Laurel, I didn’t realize how much Mick loved you,” Dinah said as she followed Peter out the door.

The door closed, and Laurel was left alone with her thoughts. Mick loved her? She would be lying if she said there was no connection between them, but love? Love was such a strong emotion. Could he really love her? And did she love him?

~

He didn’t come back that night. Laurel left messages, but Mick never returned them. He had skipped out on the family dinner the evening after, and even Leonard said he hadn’t heard from him. So much for love, she thought as she made herself a coffee after arriving home from the dinner Thursday night.

With her mug in her hand, Laurel made her way over to the couch and sat down, curling her legs under her as she did. She had spoken to Sara and Felicity earlier and they had told her not to worry, but that was easier said than done.

Laurel rolled her eyes as her phone rang, and she saw the precinct number on it. She did not want to have to work tonight. She had too much on her mind.

“This is Laurel,” she answered brightly, faking her happiness.

“It’s me,” came the voice on the other end.

“I’ll be right there,” she said, hanging up and heading out the door.

~

“Let me through, Garry,” Laurel said to an officer she knew well at the precinct.

“No problem, Laurel.”

The doors opened, and Laurel made her way down the long hall she had walked far too many times, stopping the holding cell at the end.

“Well you look a little worse for wear,” she said through the bars to the man sitting on the bed in front of her with his head in his hands.

“And you look gorgeous,” Mick said, raising his head to look at her, the bruise clearly forming around his right eye.

“What happened?” Laurel asked Mick through the bars.

“Bar fight, you should know that by now,” Mick answered with a shrug before getting up and making his way over to her.

“Which bar?”

“Mine.”

“What? How?”

“Some jackass had seen you in there and was talking about you. I didn’t like it,” Mick said with another shrug.

Laurel bit her lip and tried to hide a smile at his words, failing miserably.

“Garry, open it up!” she called back down the hall she had come from. 

There was a pause and then the sound of the cell unlocking, and the bars slid open. Laurel made her way into the cell and stood on her toes, pulling Mick into a kiss.

“What was that?” Mick asked when she pulled away.

“I just realized that I’d rather be picking you up from here with a black eye every week than ever have someone fancy enough to give me the world,” Laurel explained.

Mick pulled her back into a kiss, which she returned, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck for a moment before he broke the kiss.

“Let’s go home,” he said, and she nodded up at him with a grin before leading him out of the cell.

~

Life got back to usual in the two days between Laurel picking Mick up at the precinct and Christmas. The apartment was quieter without her mother and Peter, but Laurel preferred it that way, and although she and Mick hadn’t discussed it, she was very aware that even with her mother gone, they were still sharing her bed. Part of her was too worried to bring it up in case he moved back to the guest room, something she wasn’t willing to admit out loud that she didn’t want.

“What time do we have to be back at your dad and Donna’s today?” Mick asked as he made them both a coffee.

Laurel was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, wrapping the last of the gifts she had purchased to take with them, but she turned to look at him in the kitchen as she answered.

“Any time after 11. Donna said she’ll do lunch around 12:30,” Laurel told him.

“So we have a couple of hours,” Mick said, glancing at the clock.

Mick made his way over to Laurel and handed her the coffee before sitting behind her on the couch. Laurel leaned back against his legs and sipped her coffee in silence for a moment, then twisted slightly to look at him.

“Thanks for doing this for me. I know you didn’t have to, and I know you only said yes because of the money, but I really appreciate it, Mick.”

Laurel watched as Mick drank some of his own coffee while she spoke, then she declared that she was going to shower. She took her cup to the kitchen and placed it on the counter. She would have to reheat it when she was done, but she needed some space, needed to work out whatever she was feeling for her current house guest, because she knew that she didn’t just want this to be friends with benefits. Sure, okay, it had only been a couple of kisses, but still, the more time she spent with Mick, the more Laurel realized that she wanted more.

Turning around, she came face to face with Mick, and she had to suck in a breath at the closeness of him. Laurel looked up at him, and he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

“You’re right, I said yes because of the money, but I don’t care about that anymore, Laurel,” Mick said. “We could drop this whole arrangement right now, and I’d still want to be with you.”

“You would?” Laurel asked as she ran a hand up his chest to rest on the side of his neck.

“I would. Your family was right; this is like a cheesy movie that Donna loves, but I don’t even care about that. I just know that I don’t want to go back to the way things were before I moved in here.”

“You don’t care about this being like a cheesy romance? Really?”

“Okay, I do, a lot! But I want to be with you more than I care about that,” Mick said.

Laurel had no idea who made the first move, she just knew that Mick had pressed her back against the counter and her arms were wrapped around his neck as they kissed. It wasn’t like any of their other kisses. There was no one there to watch, and it wasn’t because he’d admitted to defending her honor. It was just for them, and Laurel could tell that it was only the beginning. 

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't think I'd have time to commit to an actual SS this year but this came to mind so I wanted to write it.  
> Happy Holidays to all <3
> 
> Hugs  
> Chelle


End file.
